Camille Ricketts of Venture Beat moderated a panel on VC investment in smart grid at the Greenbeat event this morning.

Here are a few notable observations and quotes from the investors on the panel.

Peter Wagner of Accel Partners:

• He's very interested in the issues in the charging and control of EVs.
• He encourages entrepreneurs to find customers who are not the utility – go direct to a consumer.
• Wagner is looking for the company that looks like Opower meets Playfish – bringing social networking plus energy monitoring direct to the consumer
• "Wouldn't be surprised to see Cisco acquire Silver Spring Networks – although Cisco is probably tired of being extorted in the M&A market." (See Tandberg.)
• The negative with government smart grid funding is the risk of "false positives" – chasing pools of dollars that seem to exist but are really a mirage.

Don Wood of DFJ on greentech exit action in China:

• Wind turbine blade manufacturer "Tang Energy will go public" and I think you will see an EV company go public in 2010."